These cheery little flowers pop up at about the same time as the Coltsfoots, among the first flowers of spring. The flowers open before the leaves are fully unfurled, so each flower stem is elegantly wrapped in a shell-like green leaf. The English and Latin names both come from the fact that the root is full of red juice. This is the only member of the genus Sanguinaria.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
SANGUINARIA [Dill.] L. BLOODROOT. Sepals 2. Petals
8-12, spatulate-oblong. Stamens about 24. Style short;
stigma 2-grooved. Pod ellipsoid or fusiform, turgid,
1-celled, 2-valved. Seeds with a large crest. — Low
perennial; its thick prostrate rootstocks (surcharged
with red-orange acrid juice) sending up in earliest
spring a palmate-lobed leaf and 1-flowered scape.
Flower white, handsome, the bud erect, the petals not
crumpled. (Name from the color of the juice.)
S. canadensis L. — Open rich woods; common.
Apr., May.
